Introduction In
the Summa Theologiae Thomas Aquinas
asks the following question: “Utrum
aliquis intellectus creatus posit Deum videre per essentiam?”[1]
In English, “Is it possible for a Created Intellect to see God through or in
His essence?” Aquinas’s answer is that a created intellect can see God in His
essence, but not naturally. In the Respondeo,
the magisterial response of Aquinas to this question, he gives us a dilemma. “Cum enim ultima hominis beatitudo in
altissima ejus operatione consistat, quae est operatio intellectus, si nunquam
Dei essentiam videre potest intellectus creatus, vel nunquam beatitudinem
obtinebit, vel in alio ejus beatitudo consistet quam in Deo.”[2]
In English this is, “Therefore, seeing as the ultimate beatitude (good) of man
consists in his highest operation, that is the operation of the intellect, if
no created intellect can see the essence of God, then, either they will never
obtain their beatitude [the vision of God], or their beatitude con…